


Bonded by Pain

by Bionic_Egypt



Series: Bonded by Pain [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Based on The Scientist and Three Ghosts, I have no idea how long Oliver has been the arrow til this point, I'm going with two years, M/M, Soulmate AU, Soulmates can feel each other's physical pain, fite me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-01-20 01:50:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12422556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bionic_Egypt/pseuds/Bionic_Egypt
Summary: Barry has been in near constant pain for the last seven years of his life. When he meets his soulmate, he is determined to punch them in the face, whether or not it hurts him too. Too bad he ends up getting nearly strangled instead.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This plot bunny just would not leave me alone. Forgive any OOCness, on account of this being the first time I've written for either of these two fandoms. (I actually skipped ahead nearly a whole season of Arrow just to watch these two episodes so I could write this... I had no idea what was going on other than Barry being adorable.) 
> 
> Thanks and enjoy Bonded by Pain.

Barry was secretly glad Iris wasn't his soulmate. Sure, he bemoaned the fact that the woman he was in love with wasn't destined to be his, but he was also so glad they weren't bound together, that they didn't share their pain. He was glad that Iris had never had to suffer through any pain he felt. And he was so, _so_ grateful that it wasn't Iris's pain he felt. Because he had a secret.

 

Barry Allen had been in near constant pain for the last seven years.

 

Sure, throughout most of his life, he had felt the occasional twinge of pain, sometimes a bit more, but that was normal. Everyone with a soulmate felt the phantom pains every once and a while. It was considered a gift to know when your soulmate was in pain, a way to know when they needed help and to share their struggles. Barry had always wanted to meet his soulmate and help them through tough times, just like his parents had. It was one of the reasons he knew his dad didn't kill his mom. Even if he hadn't seen the man in the lightning, he wouldn't have believed his dad had done it, if only because of the pure agony he had seen on his face while he was being pushed into the police car.

 

But just after Barry graduated high school, the occasional twinges of pain - plus a few that definitely felt like a punch - got a lot worse. He still remembered the first time it got worse, the first time he honestly thought he was going to lose his soulmate.

 

He had been at home, helping Iris make dinner for Joe, who was working late that night. They were laughing and goofing off and Iris had just shoved Barry toward the counter when suddenly -

 

Pain erupted in his shoulder, a pain like nothing he had ever felt before. Barry's knees gave out as he clutched desperately at where the pain was coming from, trying in vain to rip it out of him. He vaguely registered Iris saying something to him, but he couldn't make out the words. All he could focus on was _pain hurt make it stop oh god just make it stop_.

 

He hadn't even realized he'd passed out until he woke up in his bed, the pain now a harsh throbbing, but not as bad as it had been. Both Iris and Joe were hovering over him, worry written sharply across their features. He refused to talk about it, other than to tell them his soulmate was injured. What else could he say? He had no way of finding them, no way of knowing what had caused them harm.

 

Barry wished that that had been the last time he had ever passed out from his soulmate's pain. But only a few days later, a burning ache in his torso had sent him once again into the darkness.

 

Eventually, he got used to it. He stopped passing out, stopped shutting down every time he shared his soulmate's pain. That's not to say it stopped affecting him. Far from it. He just learned to deal with it. And if he sucked in a sharp gasp during his midterms or walked with a slight limp for two days during winter break, well, then that was his problem, wasn't it?

 

* * *

 

 

Barry really didn't enjoy his first day in Starling City. First his train was late - well, second train, but still - then he couldn't catch a cab, it was raining, he was drenched, late to the crime scene, and to top it all off, his soulmate got injured again. It was at least a broken rib this time, plus a few other aches and pains. It flared up about an hour after it started, like someone had pressed against it. At least his soulmate was seeing a doctor. That was something, right?

 

Barry ended up sleeping in a chair that night, afraid that lying down and potentially rolling onto his side would only serve to aggravate the pain. He knew it was stupid, since nothing he could do would affect the pain in any way, but it made him feel better. Mentally, that is. Only time and his soulmate taking some painkillers would help them physically.

 

If Felicity noticed he was favoring his right side the next day, she didn't say anything. Instead, she invited him to a party, an actual party! But he hoped there wouldn't be any dancing. He couldn't dance at the best of times, and with the pain from his soulmate coursing through his body, he knew he would be even worse.

 

* * *

 

 

Running into the train station while feeling like his whole body was about to break was not Barry's idea of a good time. It was no wonder he was late, really. He had nearly passed out while checking out of his hotel room. If he ever found his soulmate, they were going to have words over whatever they were going through. Well, as long as it was their fault. If it wasn't their fault, then Barry would do his damnedest to help them out. But if it was their fault, he was going to punch them, if he felt the pain or not. Which he would. Because they were soulmates.

 

And of course, he got knocked out just after he sat down! It was official; Barry hated Starling City.

 

When he woke up with a headache that was all his own - in addition to the pain he felt from his soulmate, of course - he realized something. He was in the Vigilante's base. And Felicity was there. And Mr. Queen's bodyguard was there. And Mr. Queen was there. Mr. Queen was there, lying on a table, in the Vigilante's costume.

 

Mr. Queen was the Vigilante.

 

Felicity begged him to save her friend, tears in her eyes, and Barry knew he had no choice. So he shoved his pain down, like he had been doing for the last seven years, and did his best to save the man's life. When Mr. Queen started crashing, Barry felt his own heartbeat slow as his panic skyrocketed. Oh god. Both Mr. Queen and Barry's soulmate were dying. He had to save them! But since Mr. Queen was the only one he could help, he had to pour everything he had into saving his life. He did feel a little bad about the rat poison, but only because it made him sound like he was trying to kill Mr. Queen. Which he wasn't! It wasn't Barry's fault that warfarin was used as both a blood thinner and a pest controller.

 

It wasn't until nearly an hour later, when Barry had turned from saving the man to trying to lift the bad guy's fingerprints from where he had grabbed Mr. Queen's neck, that the man woke up. The first thing he did was lunge out and grab Barry by the throat, nearly squeezing his windpipe shut. Barry would have tried calling out for help, but the moment the pain registered in his mind, Mr. Queen threw himself back, angry shock in his eyes.

 

"What the hell is going on?!" Mr. Queen snapped.

 

Felicity tried to explain what happened, but it didn't look like Mr. Queen was really listening. He was still staring at Barry with those angry-shocked eyes, as though something had happened that he couldn't comprehend. But nothing had happened, except Barry almost getting strangled for saving the man's life. Mr. Queen rounded on Felicity, though it was clear he was still shocked.

 

"You told him who I am?"

 

"Yeah, I did," she said, no trace of remorse in her voice.

 

"That's not your secret to tell, Felicity. I decide who finds out my identity." Now he sounded almost hurt, though that was probably just a fluke. Barry couldn't imagine Mr. Queen actually being emotionally hurt over this.

 

"Well," Felicity started as she walked around the table Mr. Queen had just been lying on "we didn't have time to get your vote, what with you unconscious and dying."

 

"What happens if he leaves here and goes right to the police?" he demanded.

 

"He wouldn't do that!"

 

"I wouldn't do that," Barry agreed, trying to interject and help his friend.

 

"I trust him."

 

"I don't." Of course he didn't.

 

"What are you going to do, put an arrow in him?"

 

Mr. Queen glared at Barry. "I am considering it."

 

"Don't worry, he's kidding!" Felicity snapped, though she never took her eyes off Mr. Queen. "How is this any different from when your mother shot you and you came to me for help?"

 

"Your mother shot you?" Barry said, his voice almost soft. He remembered feeling his soulmate get shot a while back. How awful would it be if their mother had done that to them? He couldn't imagine anyone's parents wanting to do such a thing.

 

"Or when you brought Digg down here when he was poisoned with curare?" Felicity continued as if she hadn't heard Barry.

 

"The difference is that I did my homework on both of you!" Mr. Queen snapped, anger evident in his voice. "I don't just tell people easily."

 

"Uh, I-I'm not gonna tell anyone," Barry interrupted once again. "And you don't have to thank me, but you should thank her instead of being kind of a jerk." He did his best not to flinch when the other man stepped up to him all menacingly. "Mr. Queen."

 

Mr. Queen stared at Barry, an odd look in his eyes. Slowly, he traced a gloved hand across his own neck before saying the last thing anyone had expected.

 

"I felt that," he said, interrupting whatever else Felicity had been about to say.

 

Now it was Barry's turn to be shocked. "You... what?"

 

"I felt - I felt a hand around my throat when I was choking you."

 

Before anyone could say anything else, Mr. Queen's phone beeped and he announced that he had to leave. He also said something about a serum that someone was going to mass produce, said it was from the island. If it was the island Barry was thinking of, he wasn't so sure he wanted to know anything else. Because if it was the island Mr. Queen had been stranded on for five years, then Barry knew the man hadn't been alone. There was absolutely nothing that could have caused as much pain as he had felt, nor caused the scars he had noticed while saving the man's life, other than straight up torture. And wild animals weren't known for torturing people.

 

"We'll talk later," Mr. Queen growled at Barry as he left, off to go scare people and save Starling City or whatever else it was that he did.

 

This day just kept getting better.

 

* * *

 

 

Later, Barry and Felicity were alone in the secret base - it probably had a cool name, but no one had clued Barry in on it if there was one - when she finally brought up the topic he had been dreading.

 

"So, you and Oliver, huh?"

 

Barry sighed. "I guess so. The last seven years make a lot more sense now, at least."

 

Felicity gasped, her hands going up to cover her mouth. "Oh my god, I didn't even think of that. You guys feel each other's pain. You felt his pain. You felt what he went through on the island."

 

He nodded. "Yeah. I did. And for a few years, I hated him for it. I hated that I couldn't stop it, couldn't save him, because I didn't know who he was. Looking back, I can't be mad about what happened during those five years he was missing. I can't even really be mad about the last two, even though he chose to do that. He chose to put on that hood and get hurt, but he did it to save people. I just don't want him to get hurt anymore. Not for my sake, but for his." Barry paused to take a steadying breath. "Felicity, last night I felt him dying."

 

Felicity put a hand over Barry's, offering a sad smile. "I can't tell you he'd give it up," she said with a softness that he had rarely heard "but I think now that he knows what he does will affect someone, he might be more careful"

 

Barry returned her sad smile. "I hope so."

 

* * *

 

 

Barry knew he had to go soon if he didn't want to miss his train (again), but he knew he just had to talk to Mr. Queen. Should he call him Oliver? Probably not. The man had seemed really mad at him. Best to be at least a little respectful.

 

Mr. Queen caught him just outside of the foundry, which was the least cool name Barry had ever heard for a secret lair - seriously, he really should call it the Quiver or something, since he was arrow themed and all. They found a secluded spot in the empty club above, taking a seat and sitting in silence for what seemed like hours until Mr. Queen finally spoke.

 

"Sorry I tried to kill you."

 

Barry couldn't help himself; he snorted. "Seriously? That's what you open with?"

 

Mr. Queen wouldn't meet his eyes. "Well, I am." He fell silent for a bit, though it didn't last long. "You know, when I was in high school, I thought that your parents were hitting you."

 

Barry felt his jaw physically drop. "Wh-what?"

 

Mr. Queen nodded. "Yeah. Took me a bit before I realized it was probably school bullies or something."

 

"Oh! You're talking about what happened with Tony Woodyard," he said, realization blooming on his features. "Yeah, that guy was a jerk. Said I was 'born to take a beating.' He just liked to pummel me because I was small and a nerd and my dad was in jail."

 

Mr. Queen clenched his teeth. "Huh."

 

Barry shook his head. "Nuh uh, don't even think about it. I don't want you going all revenge-driven-vigilante on this guy because he was a jerk to me in middle school. Besides, I have to go soon and I don't think you wanted to talk about Tony."

 

Mr. Queen sighed. "No, I didn't. I wanted to apologize."

 

"You have nothing to apologize for."

 

"But I do. It's bad enough I had to go through the last seven years. It had never really occurred to me that someone else would have to feel it too. Well, it did, but it never seemed real. Not until today."

 

Barry shook his head. "Look, Mr. Queen-"

 

"Oliver."

 

"Oliver, you don't have to apologize for me feeling that stuff. I learned to live with it. And before you say anything, I know it sucks that I had to do that, but it sucks even worse for you because I'm pretty sure you still have the scars from it. I never got a scratch. I think you had it worse. And I get that you're still going to be the Hood, or the Vigilante, or whatever you call yourself, and that's totally cool. I get why you're doing it. Just be careful, okay? I don't - I don't want to feel you die. I saw how it nearly killed my dad when my mom died. I can't go through that."

 

Oliver finally looked Barry in the eyes. "I'll try."

 

They talked for a little while longer, before Barry had to go. Before he left, however, they made plans to meet again in a few weeks. Apparently Oliver had been meaning to head out to Central City for a while, anyway. Everything seemed like it was going to be okay. Sure, they didn't know it they were both ready to commit to being in a relationship, but that's what weekend visits for coffee were for, right?

 

* * *

 

 

Late that night, just as Oliver was getting back to the foundry, he heard Felicity chatting away with someone on the phone. It almost sounded like Barry. Huh. Hopefully the kid had made it to that particle accelerator thing he'd mentioned earlier.

 

Oliver opened his mouth, about to call out to his friend and ask if it was indeed Barry on the phone, when he felt something white hot and painful shoot down his spine, throwing him backward onto the floor.

 

It felt like his bones were melting, like pure electricity was shooting through his body and burning his nerves. A scream of pure anguish ripped its way from his lungs. He almost thought he heard Felicity's voice and the clatter of her heels rushing over to him, but the pain he felt was too overpowering for him to focus on anything else but it.

 

The last thing Oliver thought before the darkness overtook him was _Please don't let Barry die._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a few months, but guess who’s back! I’m really sorry for the long wait, you guys. To be honest, when I wrote the first part, I wasn’t planning on writing more, so this was a bit difficult. It’s a bit different than the first part, like it being from Oliver’s POV, or more focused on actual injuries than on how he feels about Barry (Oliver just seems like the kind of guy to focus on the physical more than emotional). I am sorry about that, but it just made a bit more sense. I also kind of ignored Iris’s crush on Oliver and made her and Joe not like him all that much, but it’s because they’ve seen what Barry has gone through for the last seven (now eight) years. I may have also skipped over the fight at the end of Flash vs. Arrow, but that’s because I really only wanted to use the arrow-shooting scene from the episode. It also ends with a rewrite of the last scene of that episode, because I wanted to fix that scene with Oliver being an ass for a different reason and Barry refusing to accept it instead of being a pushover. With that said, please enjoy Part Two!

Oliver had never really considered what it meant to have a soulmate. He knew he had one; all the aches he felt that had no discernable source told him as much, but he had never really thought about what it meant to be bound to someone else. That all changed when he met Barry Allen.

 

His first impression wasn't too great. He took one look at the kid, who barely looked legal but was apparently old enough to be a CSI, and thought _This is a joke, right?_ Because there was no way this was really happening. This stuttering, rambling mess of a human being was somehow pointing out exactly what had happened and what had been stolen.

 

Things only got worse when he realized the younger man was his soulmate. And okay, maybe trying to strangle him wasn't the best idea, but the flash of pain he felt the instant he wrapped his hand around the other man's throat was enough to throw him backward in shock. And maybe he had been lying when he told Felicity he was considering shooting him, but that wasn't the point. The point was that he was finally confronted with the person he had put through hell for the last seven years.

 

Guilt ate at Oliver as he remembered just what he had felt during his time on the island, as well as his time as the Arrow. He couldn't deal with seeing the person who had shared that with him without knowing what was going on. But somehow, Barry wasn't mad at him for it. In fact, he was totally understanding of the whole thing. They made plans to meet up in Central City the next weekend, since Barry had to go home or risk losing his job (not that Oliver couldn't offer him a position at his company if it came down to it, but he figured Barry wouldn't take too kindly to that).

 

Next week didn't come for a long time.

 

Instead of coffee and maybe a date, there was pain so immense that it sent Oliver into darkness. It was only later that he learned Barry had been struck by lightning and had fallen into a coma. He was on the first train to Central City when Felicity told him what happened.

 

Meeting Barry's family was . . . interesting, to say the least. Joe and Iris were both nice enough, but Oliver could tell that they wanted to hit him when they found out who he was. The only thing that stopped them was the knowledge that Barry would feel it, if he could feel anything. Once they got over said urge to hit him, they were some of the nicest people he'd met in a while, if a bit distant with him.

 

When Barry was moved to S.T.A.R Labs, Oliver was in Starling City, fighting crime as he did most every night. He didn't hear about it until the next time he showed up at the hospital. Iris and Joe apologized profusely for forgetting to tell him, but it rang a little hollow. They tried making up for it by telling him stories of Barry's childhood in their house, brought pictures for him to look at. Oliver felt like he was getting to know Barry through his family.

 

Oliver spent as much time as he could in Central City. When he was there, he rarely ever left Barry's side. He could tell it annoyed the few people left at S.T.A.R Labs, but he really couldn't find it in himself to care. He wasn't leaving Barry any more than he had to.

 

* * *

 

 

Nine months after Barry fell into a coma, Oliver was practicing with his bow in the foundry when a searing pain shot through his hand. He dropped the bow in both pain and shock, his good hand shooting out to grab his injured one.

 

Wait.

 

He hadn't actually been injured, had he? He'd just been about to shoot an arrow. There was nothing he had been doing that would have injured him. That meant the pain wasn't his. That mean Barry was . . . Barry was hurt. How did someone get hurt in a coma?!

 

Was he still in the coma? They would've called him if he'd woken up, right? Surely Iris at least would have had the decency to call him. She was the only one who halfway liked him! Oliver scrambled for his phone, scrolling frantically for Iris's number. Each ring was agonizingly long as he waited for her to pick up.

 

" _Oliver!"_ Iris's voice rang out. " _Oh my god, I can't believe we forgot to call you! Barry's-"_

 

"Awake?" Oliver interrupted, flexing his bad hand. "I kind of guessed."

 

Iris groaned. " _You're kidding me. He got hurt already? He's only been awake a few hours!"_ She sighed before adding " _So, when are you coming to Central?"_

 

Oliver considered it. There was someone he had to take care of as the Arrow that night. It was the only time he'd be able to deal with them for weeks. "I'll catch the earliest train tomorrow."

 

" _Really?"_ The surprise in Iris's voice was palpable. " _You're not coming tonight?"_

 

"I wish I could, but work sucks. You know how it is, right?"

 

He could feel the judgement radiating from over the line, but didn't comment on it. He could take any judgement from her or her father as long as Barry was okay. And a shattered hand was a much better option than being trapped in a coma. Broken bones heal. Comas could be forever.

 

* * *

 

 

Broken bones must heal a lot faster than Oliver remembered. About three or so hours after that first shock, he found that he wasn't in pain any more. Granted, he was glad he wouldn't be dealing with the pain of a broken hand when he went out, but how could Barry not be in any pain whatsoever? Even with the best painkillers in the world, he should be feeling at least _something_. But no. There was no pain.

 

Oliver dealt with the man he was after fairly quickly, so he decided to do a quick patrol around the city before heading back to the foundry. He stopped briefly on a rooftop, removing the mask Barry had made for him and taking a second to admire the cityscape before him. He was just about to continue on his route when he saw something . . . impossible. Yellow lightning streaked through the streets as something rushed toward the building he was on. It vanished through the doors on the ground floor, and seconds later the door on the roof was thrown open. The lightning flashed out of the door and Oliver could barely register a figure inside it before it stopped.

 

Before he realized who it was, before he realized just what it was he was looking at, he thought about what Barry had told him months ago, when he confronted him about why he was in Starling City. A man in lightning was the one who had killed Barry's mother, at least according to him. Now a man in lightning was standing in front of him. Was he going to kill him too?

 

And then Oliver realized just who the man in the lightning was.

 

"Barry?"

 

The brightest smile Oliver had ever seen spread across Barry's face, quick as the lightning that had encased him only seconds ago. "Oliver!"

 

Oliver didn't hesitate. He lunged for Barry, engulfing him in the tightest hug he'd ever given. He could feel Barry's heartbeat, fast as a hummingbird's, could feel the heat of his body, felt the slight ache he knew was from his tight grip on his soulmate (not that he could force himself to let go until he knew this wasn't a hallucination or a dream).

 

Eventually, he did in fact force himself to pull back, if only to look Barry in the eyes. "You're okay," he said in awe. "You're here. How . . . how are you here?"

 

Barry's smile widened, if that was even possible. "Well, turns out that lightning didn't just put me in a coma. I've got a really great story, if you're interested?"

 

Oliver felt a smile tug at his own lips. "How about over coffee?"

 

Barry threw back his head and laughed.

 

* * *

 

 

After hearing Barry's story - almost too amazing to believe, and he wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen him run in the lightning earlier - Oliver offered him a place to stay for the night. He was turned down, rather unhappily, as Barry's family didn't want him gone for too long. In fact, they didn't even _know_ he was gone. Oliver assured him that he would be in Central as soon as he could, and already had a ticket for the first train the next morning.

 

They both left, the word "Cool" coming from both their lips as they watched how the other moved. Oliver smiled as his eyes followed the yellow trail of lightning racing out of the city. His soulmate was going to be a superhero. That really was cool.

 

* * *

 

 

Weeks passed. Oliver and Barry stayed in touch as much as they could, talking over the phone at least twice a day, as well as weekends spent in each other's cities. But things came up, bad guys needed taken down and meta humans needed stopping, so there were times when they didn't have much time for each other. They did their best, though, and that was what mattered.

 

Felicity was headed to Central that week, since Oliver couldn't make it and she had wanted to see Barry for a while, anyway. Oliver just made a request for her to call him when she saw him and made sure he was alright. Sure, Oliver hadn't felt any pain that day, but it was better to be safe than sorry. One could never be too safe when their soulmate was a superhero.

 

About an hour after said call, Oliver's knees nearly gave out as pain wracked his body. What the hell?! His phone buzzed with a new text message. It was from Felicity.

 

_Barry just fell off his super-treadmill. He says sorry._

 

Oliver rolled his eyes. Of course he did. His soulmate was a super-klutz.

 

* * *

 

 

Later, after there was no trace of the pain he felt from Barry falling off a treadmill at superspeed, Oliver thought that was it. No more pain for a bit. Barry couldn't possibly be that accident prone, right? And there were no traces of metahumans on the news, no odd deaths or strange weather patterns, so everything should be good. Then again, this was Barry he was talking about. In the absence of metahumans, of course he would find something else dangerous to fight.

 

Oliver was in the foundry, training with Dig, when . . . _something_ hit his side. No, not his side. Barry's side, he realized when he glanced down. He honestly couldn't tell if it was burning hot or freezing cold. He barely noticed Dig reaching down to help him up from where he'd fallen. He hadn't even realized he wasn't standing anymore.

 

What happened to Barry?

 

* * *

 

 

Frostbite. Because of course. Of _course_ it was frostbite. Logically, Oliver knew it made sense to fight speed with cold (just because he had been a slacker didn't mean he hadn't learned anything from those expensive prep schools), but did they have to _freeze_ his soulmate?

 

That was it. Next time Felicity went to Central City, he was going too, job be damned.

 

* * *

 

 

One of Oliver's cases brought his team to Central City just in time for them to help Barry with one of his more dangerous metahumans. And Oliver's preferred method of helping? Training Barry to be more aware of his surroundings when in the field. And the only way he knew how to do that was to shoot him.

 

"What's that for?" Barry asked as Oliver drew his bow.

 

"You're going to run over there, then come at me, and get hit with an arrow."

 

Barry snorted. "No, I'm not."

 

"Yes, you are."

 

"But if you shoot me, you'll feel it," he reminded him good-naturedly.

 

Oliver shrugged. "Then don't get shot."

 

"Fine. I will humor you."

 

Barry rushed over to the top of a small hill and shouted out that he was ready to rush back. Oliver drew his bow, aimed, took a deep breath, and fired. As expected, Barry ran forward and caught it just feet away from Oliver, a smug grin on his face. Oliver braced himself as the crossbows he had planted earlier fired two arrows into Barry's back.

 

Pain exploded dangerously near Oliver's spine, but he ignored it, having been all too used to the feeling of being shot.

 

"You shot me," Barry said, tone betraying his shock. Oliver couldn't blame him; soulmates rarely ever hurt each other, if only because they didn't want to feel the pain themselves.

 

"I heard you heal fast," Oliver said in a forced-nonchalant tone as he yanked the arrows out of Barry's back. He couldn't stop himself from wincing at the added pain. Ouch.

 

* * *

 

 

A few days later, Oliver had to go back to Starling City. Not that he wanted to, though. He'd much rather stay in Central City with Barry, but he couldn't abandon his city. Not after everything he had done trying to keep it safe. He had long considered inviting Barry to stay with him in Starling City, but he knew Barry had the same attachments to Central.

 

He met up with Barry at Jitters about half an hour before he had to catch the train back. There was a forlorn look to the speedster, not that it was hard to figure out why. Their fight while Barry had been under Bivolo's influence was still fresh in both their minds. While it hadn't actually hurt much physically, since both of them ended up pulling their punches because they would be able to feel whatever they dished out, it had driven a small wedge between them. There wasn't enough time for them to talk at length before Oliver's train left, but hopefully they had time to say what really mattered.

 

"Hey," Barry greeted, handing Oliver a to-go cup "Iris says bye."

 

"Of course she does," Oliver said with a sarcastic grin. She still hadn't completely warmed up to him yet, though at least she was nice to his face. Joe still flat out couldn't stand him and never missed an opportunity to remind him.

 

Barry snorted, though said nothing as the two of them claimed a table and sat down, leaning in as to better hear one another. Oliver felt his lips start to tug up in a smile, though he quickly forced it away. There was something he had to do, and it wasn't something he should be smiling for.

 

"So, how about the next time you visit, we skip the metahuman attack?" Barry said jokingly.

 

Oliver ignored his attempt at a joke, instead leaning in further with a serious look on his face. This was going to be unpleasant for both of them, but it was something that had to be said.

 

"Barry, what are we doing?"

 

Barry's head tilted in confusion. "Having coffee?"

 

He gave his soulmate a flat look. "That's not what I meant."

 

"Then what did you mean?"

 

Oliver forced himself to look Barry in the eyes as he said "What are we doing about this whole soulmate deal? Just look at the last few days. It's the longest we've spent together since before you were struck by lightning, and we hadn't even known we were soulmates then. Every time we spend more than a day or two together, it's because someone is hurt or is in danger."

 

"Okay? So I'll take some more time off, spend a whole week in Starling City," Barry offered. "I mean, I've only been out of the coma for a month. Singh will probably let me leave for a bit, and I've got some vacation time saved up anyway."

 

Oliver shook his head. "It's not just that. We don't know that much about each other. I'm not a good guy, Barry; I've done things I'm not proud of. What if you decide you can't live with it? And if you can, then what? I can't leave Starling City, and you can't leave Central."

 

Barry gave him a hard look. "Stop trying to sabotage this! Look, Oliver, as soon as the metahuman thing us dealt with, once we know how to stop them without using my speed, I don't have to stay in Central anymore. And so what if you've done some bad stuff? We have a secret prison under S.T.A.R. Labs full of murderous metahumans. Dr. Wells _created_ the metahumans in the first place! I still work with him, why wouldn't I want to be around you?"

 

Oliver was stunned. Barry was serious about this, wasn't he? He really wanted to see where this went. He didn't care about Oliver's past, the things he had done. He just wanted to get to know the person the universe had decided was his.

 

Why was Oliver fighting this? Barry could protect himself. He knew this. Yes, he didn't want to drag Barry down with him when everything eventually went to hell, but maybe he could accept this one bright thing life was trying to give him.

 

And when Barry leaned the rest of the way across the table and quickly pecked him on the lips, Oliver knew that there was no way he could possibly give this up. Guys like him might not get the fairy tale ending, but he was going to enjoy it for as long as he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So? Was it worth the wait? (I doubt it, but let’s pretend, shall we?) I actually really like this AU, and rewatching the Flash vs Arrow episode while thinking about this AU may have given me some ideas, so if you happen to see more of this AU from me, don’t be surprised (but also don’t be surprised if you don’t. If I write it, it’ll be a long project, and I’m already working on a multi-chapter fic or two at the moment). But hey, if you guys want to write something in this AU, I say go for it! I’d love to read your guys’ take on it!  
> Thanks for reading!


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